Local artist Angela Roussin opened her studio on the weekend. Photo by Michael Christianson

By Michael Christianson

On a cold March Saturday balloons were seen on King Street giving the day a splash of colour. Inside was an artist who hopes to do the same to Dryden.

Angela Roussin has been making a name for herself as an artist in the city, hosting painting parties and lessons, and last weekend she opened her own art studio inside the King Street Plaza.

“I want to bring art to the community so that way people who don’t have space to do art have the opportunity to come learn art or even just do more art and have art in their lives,” said Roussin. ”I do a lot of art myself and living in a small apartment doesn’t give a lot of room to start doing my commissions so this is actually my own studio and then I can teach lessons from it as well. My goal is to make this studio large enough that I can have my classes in it, do commissions in there and even have a wall designated to local artists so they can advertise or maybe even sell their stuff.”

She adds that maybe one day down the line she can sell more artisan materials as well.

Roussin said the studio opening went better than expected with lots of people coming in to wish her well. Roussin also supply teaches at St. Joseph’s school so many of her students came down with their parents to see the space.

The artist has given many painting classes and she plans to give more lessons in her new studio; she continues to offer home painting parties as well.

Roussin is hoping to continue to teach methods to inspire the youth of Dryden to keep them painting and to show that art can be a career, not just a hobby.